Linger
by KaterineKasdorf
Summary: When people meet in the dream-world, they may know each other and they may not. A sweet little one-shot cross-over.


A very short little cross-over

In which someone dreams…

* * *

In that pretty, upside-down land of dreams we often meet so many people. Some we meet are our friends; some are total strangers. Others are strangely in-between. They are familiar, yet unfamiliar. They have the face of those we know, yet still they don't. Trying to understand them is like deciding on the color of a soap bubble.

In this soap-bubble world a man and a woman sat down on a moss-blue rock and smiled at one another. She gazed at him with shy wonder, and he at her with gentle confidence.

After they sat this way for some time she ventured to say, "Why do you stare at me in that way?"

"Because I know you," he said with a soft laugh.

She tilted her head to the side and shook it slightly. "I have never met you."

"No?"

"And yet… In some ways, I know you very well."

He nodded. "It's that way with dreams, you know."

"Oh, are we dreaming?"

He silently watched a herd of black satin butterflies thunder by and then said, "Of course, dear, of course we are."

She sighed a little sigh and stood. "The perhaps we should explore."

He stood and offered her his arm. "Allow me. I'm rather good at finding my way."

She inclined her head gracefully and took his arm. As they walked through a grove of diamond trees she ventured to ask, "What makes you so certain you know me?"

"I've seen you before, of course."

"You have?"

"Why, yes. I caught you dancing, twirling so that your black hair spun about your feet."

"I haven't danced in a long time."

"And why is that, my dear?"

"I've forgotten how."

"Why, a child knows how to dance!"

"You see, I'm frightfully grown up."

He paused his walking and stilled her with his hand on her shoulder. "Are you sure, my dear? You seem like a child to me."

She thought silently for a moment, then, "Yes… I do feel younger here." They walked until they came to cheerful rainbow river gurgling over clear rocks. She stood on the bank while he took off his shoes and waded into the water. "How old are you?" she asked him as she watched him splash.

"Oh, I'm terribly old."

"Are you sure? You seem like a child to me."

He laughed at that. "Yes! I suppose I am!" He held out his hand for her then and she hesitated, but at last, laughing, she took off her shoes and splashed toward him.

After they had played for a while they dried their feet and lay on the bank, feeling the warmth soak into them. For a long long time.

The feeling came on them both at once that they must leave the water and the wood. He was the first to speak. "If I had to describe you in one word it would be gentle."

She smiled up at him. "Yes, I have heard that before."

They passed back through the diamond trees and came out to an emerald green stretch of land. The black butterflies thundered across once more, but they disappeared into the diamond wood and the air grew very still. Across the field was a gray mist through which they could see murky moving shapes.

He looked at her sadly. "I think it is time to go."

"Yes I'm afraid so."

"Afraid?"

"Well, yes. You see, I'm terribly alone over there." She pointed to the mist in the far west.

"Why?" he asked her softly.

"Because I don't remember how to belong."

He smiled and bent so that he was whispering in her ear. "Once a queen…"

The sunshine broke out on her face and she laughed. "Yes! Yes!"

He looked now sadly at the east. "And I, I am so lonely over there."

"Why?" she asked, returning his sympathy.

"Because my love is in the west," he replied smiling into her eyes.

She blushed a little but she was happy. "I'll be coming soon," she said.

"I think so," he said back.

The grey mist beckoned to them now.

"Well, goodbye, then," she said, reluctant to leave.

"Farewell for now," he answered, leaning down to kiss her cheek. She smiled at him and then they walked slowly in opposite directions. A white jewel glistened on his brow as he turned his head to the sunlight before disappearing into the mist and haze.

The upside down world didn't notice them leave. The rainbow river laughed its way down stream and the diamond trees drank deeply of the water as the black butterflies flirted about the sturdy, crystalline trunks.


End file.
